Sanchez Out Against Alves for UFC 90

The UFC has confirmed that Diego “Nightmare” Sanchez will have to pull out of his all-important welterweight match up against Thiago Alves at UFC 90. The report states that Sanchez has suffered a torn rib cage during training, and Josh Koscheck will step in to replace him. With just a little over two weeks before the biggest fight of his young career, this is truly a “Nightmare” for Sanchez.

“There is nothing worse than having a great fight and then having one of the fighters drop out at the last second,” said UFC President Dana White. “But the one thing the UFC has proven time and time again is our ability to replace fights with ones as good as or better than the original fight.”

UFC 90 is scheduled to take place at the Allstate Arena in Rosemont, Illinois on October 25th. The card is headlined by middleweight champion Anderson Silva defending his title against Patrick Cote, however most MMA fans were looking forward to this fight the most.

“Josh Koscheck is a great fighter and I think he’s an even better matchup for me,” Alves told MMAWeekly.com. “I’m looking forward to fighting him, and I’m gonna knock him out.”

The winner of the fight was a surefire bet to be the top contender to the 170-pound title, which is currently held by Georges St-Pierre. He will be defending it against BJ Penn in a fight for the ages at UFC 94 on January 31st.

Koscheck was initially slated to take on Yoshiyuki Yoshida at Fight Night 16 “Fight for the Troops” on December 10th, however this opportunity clearly takes precedence. His last fight was a win over Chris Lyte at UFC 86, and he hasn’t stopped training since that July bout.

“I think he’s a tough opponent,” Koscheck told MMAWeekly.com. “He’s on a tear right now in the UFC and for me to step up and fight him, I think it’s gonna be an exciting fight. I’ve been in training since Chris Lytle, I haven’t taken any time off.”